Thousand Oaks officials say that under a proposed decision by two California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judges, California American Water's customers in Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Camarillo will be getting much lower rate increases than the company proposed in 2016.(Photo: MIKE HARRIS/THE STAR)Buy Photo

California American Water’s Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Camarillo customers are tentatively going to get much lower rate increases than the companyproposed in 2016, according to Thousand Oaks officials.

Two administrative law judges with the California Public Utilities Commission on Nov. 13 issued a proposed decision, which Thousand Oaks officials say denies the San Diego-based company’s:

Proposed consolidation of its Southern Division — five districts in Ventura, Los Angeles and San Diego counties — included consolidating its rates throughout the division.

Draft settlement agreement with the city of Coronado in San Diego County.

Proposed full implementation of automated meter infrastructure, which the company says is used to measure, collect, and analyze usage from water meters.

Those denials will result in California American Water’s Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Camarillo customers getting much lower rate increases than the 32.1 percent hike over three years the company proposed to the utilities commission in 2016, Thousand Oaks Public Works Director Jay Spurgin said Monday

For instance, without consolidation being allowed, the company in 2016 said it would propose a smaller average residential rate hike — 14.6 percent over three years, according to Spurgin.

Exactly how much lower the proposed rate increases will be under the judges’ proposed ruling is not clear, Spurgin said.

“Unfortunately, the proposed decision does not provide enough information to determine exactly what the final rate increases will be,” he said.

A final ruling in the case is scheduled for the commission’s meeting Thursday, but could be pushed back into January at the request of California American Water, Spurgin said.

California American Water spokesman Brian Barreto said the company “is looking forward to a decision that ensures safe reliable water service for our Ventura County customers.”

“In the two and half years since the case was filed, changes to federal tax law and other CPUC decisions have resulted in cost savings that California American Water is eager to pass on to our customers,” he said. “The savings will be balanced by investments in infrastructure and workforce to meet the needs of our Ventura County customers in the coming years and decades.”

At a public hearing held by the commission in January 2017 in Newbury Park, Barreto said a number of factors were fueling the proposed rate hikes, including increased costs the company had incurred and California’s drought. The drought was declared over in the vast majority of the state in April 2017.

A third factor Barreto cited was infrastructure investments the company wants to make throughout Southern California “so that we can continue to provide safe, reliable and affordable water to our customers.”

Thousand Oaks has been actively opposing the proposed rate hikes.

“We really strongly believe that Cal Am’s rates shouldn’t be really that much different than the city’s or Cal Water Service Co.,” Spurgin said Monday. “The reasons are we all get the same imported water, the same cost, all have about the same infrastructure, the same age.

“Our costs to run water to our customers should be proportionately about the same, which means that there shouldn’t be residents in the city who pay significantly more just because they reside in the Cal Am service area, as compared to the city’s or Cal Water,” he said.

“And that's really in a nutshell the heart of our opposition and why we got so involved.”

Thousand Oaks Public Works Director Jay Spurgin

“And that’s really, in a nutshell, the heart of our opposition and why we got so involved,” he said.

Thousand Oaks’ water division is actually lowering its rates for its customers in 2019, though very modestly.

The city became a party to the California Public Utilities Commission’s proceeding on California American Water’s proposed rate hikes, retaining a Sacramento law firm to assist it in opposing the planned increases.

“That’s a level of involvement we’ve never had before,” Spurgin said.

After the city failed to reach a settlement with the company about the planned rate increases, it began encouraging the company’s customers to contact the utilities commission with their concerns.

In September, 2017, the city created a section on its website addressing the issue at toaks.org/calamwater.